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Second knock-off USB charger explodes

Angela Thompson

Lorna Sommerville says a cheap knock-off USB charger saved her money, but almost cost her her son’s life.

She bought the knock-off charger for $10 from Paddy’s Markets as a gift for her son Daniel on his 14th birthday last Sunday but, by Monday evening, the device was a blackened wreck.

It exploded within centimetres of the teen’s head after he plugged it into his iPod and sat on his bed, messaging friends on the social networking app Snapchat.

Daniel's near-miss follows the death of mother-of-two Sheryl Anne Aldeguer, who was killed while wearing headphones inside a Gosford home. She was found with burns on her ears and chest after a faulty charger sent a high voltage through her body.

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Ms Aldeguer was found dead by friends on April 23 and it is understood she had been talking on the phone to a friend in Dubai when she was killed.

It is believed a dodgy $4.95 phone charger sent a high-voltage electrical pulse into her phone, which transferred to the earphones she had connected to a laptop.

Ms Sommerville, from Kanahooka near Wollongong, said she heard a loud bang – ‘‘like metal hitting metal’’ – and saw a flash of light coming from Daniel's room.

‘‘Daniel came out of his bedroom with a stunned look on his face. He said, ‘the charger’,’’ Ms Sommerville said.

‘‘The whole house smelt like gun powder. I was shocked.’’

The explosion caused the electricity supply to short circuit in three bedrooms, and at one of the loungeroom power points.

‘‘Who knows what would have happened if we didn’t have a circuit breaker,’’ Ms Sommerville said.

‘‘After hearing about the other woman that got killed by it, we’re really thinking how seriously lucky Daniel is.’’

Police are now investigating non-compliant chargers – which do not carry a recognised safety approval or insulation on the pins of the plug – after Ms Aldeguer's death and Fair Trading is helping with the case. It has pinpointed a sub-standard mobile phone charger as the likely cause of Ms Aldeguer’s death.

On Saturday, an investigator from the Department of Fair Trading carried out a series of unannounced inspections at several Wollongong computer parts suppliers, after Fairfax Media inquiries revealed non-compliant chargers were being sold at a store in Wollongong. The devices had been removed from that store’s shelves by Saturday.

Fair Trading has warned the chargers can cause electrocution and fire and is calling on consumers to bend back the pins of the charger and discard them.

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